WEBVTT
MAN AND IS NOW
-- WHO WAS SERVING LIFE AND IS
NOW STARTING LIFE ALL OVER
AGAIN.
DEBORAH?
DEBORAH: WHEN MARK GRANT WAS
FIRST RELEASED FROM PRISON, WE
ASKED FOR AN INTERVIEW, BUT
UNDERSTANDABLY, HE NEEDED TIME
TO ADJUST BACK INTO SOCIETY.
THEN HE CALLED ME BACK TO SAY,
HE WAS READY TO TELL HIS STORY.
48-YEAR-OLD MARK GRANT SPENT
MORE THAN A QUARTER CENTURY IN
PRISON FOR A MURDER, NEARLY ALL
THE ORIGINAL PARTIES NOW AGREE,
HE DID NOT COMMIT.
IT WAS 1983, WHEN 16-YEAR-OLD
MICHAEL GOUGH WAS SHOT AND
KILLED IN EDMONDSON VILLAGE
AFTER HE REFUSED TO GIVE UP HIS
LEATHER JACKET TO A GROUP OF
BOYS.
>> ONE OF THEM PULLED OUT A
HANDGUN AND SHOT HIM.
DEBORAH: AT AGE 14, POLICE
ARRESTED MARK AT HIS CHILDHOOD
HOME
THIS GRAINY IMAGE?
HIS BOOKING PHOTO.
WHEN YOU LEFT THAT DAY?
>> I DIDN'T COME BACK UNTIL
2012.
DEBORAH: THERE WAS NO PHYSICAL
EVIDENCE TO ESTABLISH THE
IDENTITY OF THE SHOOTER.
NO FINGERPRINT, AND A MURDER
WEAPON WAS NEVER FOUND.
THE STATE RELIED SOLELY ON TWO
WITNESSES, MARK'S CO-DEFENDANT
AND ANOTHER TEENAGER WHO YEARS
LATER ADMITTED, AN AGGRESSIVE
"STOP SNITCHING" CAMPAIGN FORCED
HIM TO FALSELY ACCUSE MARK
INSTEAD OF THE REAL SHOOTER.
>> THEY WERE ALL YOUNG BOYS.
ATTORNEY PHIL DANTES SERVED AS
ASSISTANT STATE'S ATTORNEY IN
THE MURDER TRIAL
>> IF I HAD KNOWN WHAT I KNOW
NOW, I WOULD NOT HAVE APPROACHED
THE CASE THE SAME WAY AT ALL.
DEBORAH: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR RENEE
HUTCHINS LED THE CLEMENCY
PETITION EFFORT FOR MARK GRANT,
ALONG WITH A TEAM OF STUDENTS.
A KEY POINT SHE SAYS, TH
VICTIM'S BROTHER, WHO
COINCIDENTALLY SERVED TIME WITH
MARK, TOLD LAW CLINIC
INTERVIEWERS, I DO NOT THINK
MARK GRANT SHOT MY BROTHER.
I BELIEVE HE WAS WRONGLY
CONVICTED.
IN 2012, THEN GOVERNOR MARTIN
O'MALLEY COMMUTED MARK'S
SENTENCE IN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER
THIS WAS JUSTICE DELAYED, THERE
WAS NO QUESTION.
WHAT HE IS HOME, - BUT HE IS
HOME AND HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE
BEEN IN.
I'VE SEEN IT.
AS HORRIFYING AS IT SEEMS, IT
WAS NOT ME.
DEBORAH: HAVING GROWN UP IN
PRISON, MARK HAD TO GROW UP
OUTSIDE IT AS WELL.
LEARNING HOW TO NAVIGATE
TECHNOLOGY, DRIVE A CAR, AND GO
ON A DATE.
A FIRST FOR HIM AT AGE 46.
>> A LOVELY WOMAN PICKED ME UP,
AND SHE WAS A WOMAN.
DEBORAH: HE WAS ENJOYING LIFE ON
THE OUTSIDE, BUT IT HAD CHANGED.
>> FAMILIES WERE MORE TOGETHER.
FAMILIES HAVE BEEN DECIMATED.
ABANDONED BUILDINGS, IT IS SAD.
DEBORAH: MARK WORKS HARD AS A
MEAT CUTTER AT A PIKESVILLE
GROCERY STORE.
HE IS VERY OPEN ABOUT HIS PAST,
AND NO ONE SEEMS TO DESCRIBE HIM
AS BITTER OR ANGRY
I DON'T KNOW IF I WOULD HAVE
THAT STRENGTH OF PERSON, TO BE
ABLE TO ENDURE WHAT HE DID.
THE LAW CLINIC IS NOT FINISHED
WITH THIS CASE.
THEY WILL SEEK WHAT IS CALLED, A
WRIT OF ACTUAL INNOCENCE, WHICH
IF GRANTED, WOULD VACATE MARK'S
CONVICTION.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HIM GET
IT? >
>> YES, HE'S ALREADY GOT HIS
FREEDOM.
I THINK HE SHOULD GET THE
BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.
>> WHOEVER IS SEEING THIS, JUST
BE IN MY CORNER, CHAMPION MY
CAUSE.
HELP ME THROUGH MY PROCESS.
THE PROCESS OF DEALING WITH
SOCIETY.
DEBORAH: GRANT, LOOKING FORWARD,
IMAGINING THE POSSIBILTIES THAT
ONLY COME WITH FREEDOM.
DONNA: THE PERSON WHO IS
BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED MICHAEL
GOUGH HAS SINCE DIED, HE SERVED

A man who was serving a life sentence in prison is now starting life all over again.

When an inmate wrote a letter to the University of Maryland law school clinic with the words, "please, help," so began a journey that led to his release from prison nearly three decades after he was first locked up.

Advertisement

Mark Grant, 48, spent more than a quarter century in prison for a murder that nearly all the original parties now agree he did not commit.

"I often times ponder back like, ’Wow, I actually went through that? I went through that?’" Grant said.

Michael Gough, 16, was shot and killed in Edmondson Village in 1983 after he refused to give up his leather jacket to a group of boys.

Police arrested Gough, who was 14, at his childhood home.

"I didn’t come back until 2012," Grant said.

There was no physical evidence to establish the identity of the shooter. There were no fingerprints, and a murder weapon was never found.

The state relied solely on two witnesses: Grant’s co-defendant and another teenager, who years later, admitted that an aggressive "stop snitching" campaign forced him to falsely accuse Grant instead of the real shooter.

Attorney Phil Dantes served as assistant state’s attorney in the murder trial.

"They were all young boys," Dantes said. "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have handled the case the same way at all. I wouldn’t have prosecuted Grant for first-degree murder, that’s for sure."

University of Maryland Carey School of Law Professor Renee Hutchins, who is the co-director of the Clinical Law Program, led the clemency petition effort for Grant, along with a team of students.

"He grew up behind bars and he has a great sense of loss with regard to that, but it’s not anger," Hutchins said.

Hutchins said a key point was the victim’s brother, who coincidentally served time with Grant. He told law clinic interviewers, "I do not think Mark Grant shot my brother. I believe he was wrongly convicted."

"This was justice delayed, there is no question, but he’s home, and he never should have been in," Hutchins said.

Having grown up in prison, Grant had to grow up outside it as well, learning how to drive a car, navigate technology and go on a date -- which was a first for him at age 46.

"My head was big, a lovely woman came to pick me up, and she was a woman," Grant said.

He was enjoying life on the outside, but it had changed.

"Families was more together, seems like families have been decimated. Abandoned buildings, it’s just sad," Grant said.

Grant recalled a moment at Baltimore Penn Station, right after his release, when everything seemed to move at a foreign, rapid pace. He remembers a sense of confusion at Lexington Market when he saw a group of people gathered outside.

"I was like, ’Why are these people bent over the way they are?’ I thought they were looking for something, but they were sick," Grant said on seeing people who were high on drugs.

He was only 15 when he began to serve his sentence in adult prison. The youngest prisoner there, he was known as "Little Mark."